Your question:
"Could you find out why the August high (up more than 20%) didn't end the bear so we could have avoided the drop into October?"
Answer: market prices are a result of all the traders active in the market, buyers and sellers. In other words, the market is a voting machine and merely expresses what all stock traders -- buyers and sellers -- decided between themselves. There is nobody in command that negotiates a better outcome for one side or the other.
An exact opposite of that is a musical orchestra, which always has a conductor (a leader) whose sole desire and purpose is to conduct the orchestra in a manner that creates beautiful music for its entire audience. The conductor is in command of the orchestra.
There is no such leader, no conductor, for the stock market. Every trade is a tug of war between buyers and sellers each seeking to outdo the other.
